Weather in New Orleans in October

Prime time. If you get to pick your dates, October is the one. Highs average 25.5 °C, lows 19.1 °C, and rain falls on 9 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

October ranks 3 of 12 in New Orleans. Only November scores clearly higher, and the difference is small enough to be settled by price rather than weather.

Rain on 9 days, 3 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Nothing specialised needed — this is the month you pack for the trip rather than for the weather.

What the averages hide

The averages here are honest — no hidden extremes worth planning around. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest October day reached 32.9 °C and the coldest night fell to 7.6 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 126 mm — roughly 120% of the month's rain in one day.

October is moderately variable: 2 mm in the driest year against 279 mm in the wettest, around an average of 105 mm. Roughly two Octobers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 11.9 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 77%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How October sits in the year

The month is on the way down: 3.8 °C cooler than September, with November dropping another 4.9 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip. Rain has already shifted: 5 days fewer than September had.

Daylight in October

11.5 hours of daylight, losing 0.9 hours across the month. That is between New Orleans's extremes of 14.1 and 10.2 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 22.3 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

How busy it gets

Peak season. Expect the highest prices of the year and to be booking well ahead. If the dates are flexible, February is the trade worth considering — 13 points weaker on weather, and materially quieter.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

October in New Orleans versus nearby

If New Orleans is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Baton Rouge is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days. Mobile is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days.

So: October is effectively as good as it gets here — 2 points behind November, which is inside the margin where the weather stops being the deciding factor and price starts being it.

Every month in New Orleans

See all twelve months in New Orleans, or where else to go in October.